Clinical Trials Update: Enforcement of BESH Postponed until 2021

July 25, 2019

On Wednesday, July 24, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would delay the enforcement of registering and reporting results of Basic Experimental Studies involving Humans (BESH) on ClinicalTrials.gov to September 24, 2021. This has already been delayed once before.

This decision, published in a Guide Notice (NOT-OD-19-126), reflects NIH’s need for additional time to address current challenges. In an Open Mike blog post, OBSSR Director William

National Science Board Meets, Expresses Support for SBE, Discusses Plans to Address Foreign Influence

July 25, 2019

The National Science Board (NSB), a presidentially appointed body tasked with establishing policies for the National Science Foundation, met on July 17 and 18 to discuss numerous issues of importance to the broader scientific community, including an update on the Social Behavioral and Economic (SBE) Directorate, concerns about foreign influence in science, and the NSF’s Vision 2030 plan.

(See webcast of meeting: Day 1, Day 2)

On day one, Dr. Arthur Lupia provided an

NIH Advisory Committee to the Director Meets and FABBS submits Comments to NIMH

June 27, 2019

The NIH’s Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) convened in June for a packed agenda including updates on the BRAIN Initiative, sexual harassment policies, as well as the federal budget, artificial intelligence, diversity in the workforce, and vaccines.

The BRAIN Initiative co-chairs presented their final report “From Cells to Circuits, Towards Cures.” In the summary of the presentation, co-chairs indicated that BRAIN 2.0 will include an ‘added emphasis on behavior

White House Proposes Terminating Federal Advisory Committees

June 27, 2019

On June 14, the President released an Executive Order on Evaluating and Improving the Utility of Federal Advisory Committees. The order has been met with a combination of confusion and concern from the scientific community.

The proposal to evaluate the usefulness of current advisory committees is a reasonable one. However, the Executive Order states specific numbers and cuts, and provides no justification. Namely, agencies are ordered to ‘terminate at least one-third’